Secret Life of Tweets Undoes Celebrated Voice of French Suburbs
French Oscars tweeted that Bring on Hitler to kill the Jews,
Mr. Meklat tweeted about the right-leaning philosopher and essayist Alain Finkielkraut, son of a Holocaust survivor,
that "they should have broken his legs, that son of a whore." Mr. Finkielkraut responded in Le Figaro that "Mehdi and Badrou were the turbulent chouchous" — pets — "of the hate-filled left." But as unsettling as what Mr. Bouvet called in an interview the "complaisant attitude" of part of the media establishment is the content of Mr. Meklat’s tweets.
Barely into their 20s, Mehdi Meklat and Badroudine Saïd Abdallah — "Mehdi"
and "Badrou," as they are known — were stars of Bondy Blog, a much-praised chronicle of suburban France sponsored by the mainstream press.
Reached by phone in "Asia" — he wouldn’t reveal the country — Mr. Meklat sounded contrite, half-pleaded to be forgiven, acknowledged
that tweeting had become an "obsession," and insisted that "Marcelin Deschamps" wasn’t really him.
The article’s author said much of Mr. Meklat’s Twitter stream had been suppressed,
and Le Monde said its journalist received threats from Mr. Meklat’s circle merely for evoking his double identity.
Meklat said that I created a character, it’s a fictional character,
Now, on the left, Mr. Meklat’s defenders are reduced to stuttering disavowal or halfhearted defense,
and on the right, critics are spinning variations of "I told you so." Meanwhile, the National Front of Marine Le Pen has been having a field day with the "Meklat Affair," in an election season where the far-right party is doing everything it can to stir up fears about the menace of Islam.
Meklat said that I accept everybody’s pain,